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90 stories matching postal
- Tacoma's Water Chief Accused—and the City Hall Feud Behind It
Mayor Orr's appointment of George H. Hollidge to run Tacoma's water and light plants blew up into a public corruption fight, with secret affidavits, anonymous postal cards and a grand jury waiting.
- The Postmaster General's Forgotten 'Postal Telegraph' Scheme
Before the digital age, a visionary postmaster proposed merging the U.S. Mail with the telegraph to turn instant messaging into a public utility, aiming to bypass corporate monopolies.
- The Postal Inspector's Decoy Trap
A persistent postal investigator nabs two local lottery men after months of elaborate sting operations.
- The Fake Telegram That Almost Started a Diplomatic Incident
A bored telegraph operator in Blaine sparked a scandal after forging a message from Secretary of State James G. Blaine to a town assembly, causing embarrassment for local officials and leading to an investigation by the Pacific Postal Telegraph Company.
- The Battle for the Right of Way
The Northern Pacific Railroad and the Postal Telegraph Company lock horns in a legal battle over territory.
- Telegraph Titans Arrive in Seattle
The presidents of two major telegraph companies visit Portland and Seattle to assess the state of the local systems.
- The Fake Postal Inspector Who Robbed the Great Northern — and Got Away With Less Than $5
A bogus federal inspector bound two mail clerks, rifled registered pouches, and slipped off the Oriental Limited at Spokane, leaving Newport authorities to piece together a brazen, almost profitless heist.
- The Postal War: How Snohomish’s Star Exposed Seattle’s Corrupt Postmaster
In June 1877, the editor of the *Snohomish Star* launched a blistering public attack on the Seattle post office, alleging that political cronyism and negligence were deliberately delaying his paper to protect local rivals.
- Seattle Gripped by Presidential Fever
When word arrived that Benjamin Harrison had been nominated, a massive crowd mobbed the downtown bulletin boards, culminating in a raucous political speech on the steps of the Postal Telegraph office.
- The Mailroom Mountain: A Postal Crisis in 1892
Seattle residents and postmasters struggle to keep up with the city's explosive growth as federal officials ignore pleas for a larger workforce.
- The Struggle Against the Telegraph Monopoly
Public frustration with the Western Union monopoly mounts as strikes cause service delays, sparking a national debate over the necessity of a government-run postal telegraph system.
- The Passing of the Pacific’s Pioneer Telegrapher
John Leatch, a veteran operator who laid the wire between Port Townsend and Olympia, dies in San Francisco.
- The Atheist of Sixth Street
A Seattle man is arrested for sending threatening, anti-religious letters to a local clergyman while attempting to frame his prosecution as a political attack.
- The Mail is Broken in Seattle
Citizens and businesses are forced to pay for private clerks because the federal postal service cannot keep up with the city's explosive growth.
- The Mail-Order Crank of Seattle
A local mining broker faces prison for years of threatening and scurrilous letters sent to the Post-Intelligencer and national leaders.
- The Postal Forger Targeting Local Merchants
A crafty con artist is raising the value of small money orders with chemicals, and authorities are warning shopkeepers to stay vigilant.
- The Wire War: Railroad vs. Telegraph
A legal standoff erupts between the Postal Telegraph Company and the Northern Pacific Railroad along the tracks between Tacoma and Kalama.
- The Produce Hustlers of Western Avenue
A newspaperman walks Seattle's commission district and finds winter vegetables, Yakima potatoes and shipments bound for Alaska, Asia and the East.
- The Postal Money Order Swindle
A former hostler finds himself in federal custody after allegedly intercepting and cashing a woman's mail.
- The Ghost of a Forger
A clever swindler slips out of Walla Walla after passing forged postal money orders, leaving authorities empty-handed.
- The Territory's Mismatched Mail
A collapse in mail delivery leaves residents in the dark as federal contracts fall into chaos.
- Telegraph Operator Arrested for Forgery
A Northern Pacific employee is behind bars after allegedly altering postal money orders to inflate their value at a downtown bank.
- The Ring That Ruled: Whatcom’s Postal War and the Coal Company’s Grip
A furious letter from Blaine exposes how the local post office was hijacked to serve the interests of the coal barons, turning a bureaucratic dispute into a battle for democratic survival.
- The Seattle Postmaster's Inbox Woes
A satirical poetic complaint from 1885 captures the frustration of a growing city struggling with mail delivery, box rent, and the perceived indifference of the local postal bureaucracy.
- The Delegate Who Sold Seattle’s Future for Five Thousand Dollars
A scathing editorial in the Puget Sound Dispatch accuses Territorial Delegate George Freeman Willard of betraying Seattle’s interests—specifically the mud flats of Duwamish Bay—to secure his own political and financial gain, while simultaneously accepting bribes from rival railroad companies.
Also about this, in other words
- Seattle’s Post Office Was a Public Nuisance
Letters sat for a day, stamps ran short, and clerks were worked to exhaustion while the postmaster earned about $85 a month. In 1883, Seattle’s mail service was barely functioning.
- The Battle of the Mail Carriers
A postal contractor hits back at critics who accused him of corruption and canoe-based mail delivery in the rough early days of the territory's infrastructure.
- The Mail System is Broken
In 1880, Seattle residents faced endless delays and 'willful neglect' from the postal service—an early grievance about failing public infrastructure.
- The New Columbian Stamps Debut in Seattle
A commemorative series featuring historical scenes marks a new era in American postal design, arriving at the Seattle Post Office on New Year's Day, 1893.
- The Tiny Post Office Outperforming Cities
While the nation mobilizes for the Great War, the remote community of Paterson sets a local sales record for War Savings stamps that eclipses larger towns.
- The Mail Carriage Dispute
Citizens of Olympia clash with their local postmaster over a controversial contract, suspecting graft in the transport of official mail.
- The Mail Must Go Through: Seattle’s First Post Roads
In June 1876, Congress carved the first official postal arteries through Washington Territory, linking the fledgling town of Seattle to Snohomish, Tacoma, and the coal mines that would fuel its growth.
- City Leaders Demand Immediate Postal Relief
Seattle's Chamber of Commerce warns that the city's growth has completely overwhelmed the local post office.